BASELINE SURVEY ON MEMBER’S CAPACITY NEEDS ASSESMENT
Dar es Salaam
March 2012
Conducted by:
Kasuto Company Limited,
(Economic and Business Consultants)
Apartment 114, First Floor,
LIDA Building, Nkrumah Street,
PO Box 3743.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Table of Contents
1.INTRODUCTION
2EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
3TERMS OF REFERENCE
4METHODOLODY AND APPROACH
4.1 Age of the organizations
4.2 The average annual budgets in the last three years.
4.3 The number of employees of the organizations
4.4The type of human rights in which the organizations are mainly involved
5LIMITATION TO THE METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH
6FINDINGS
6.1Relevancy of SAHRiNGON
6.1.1 Communication and Information Sharing
6.1.2 Collective Actions
6.1.3 Capacity Building
6.1.4 Linking Support
6.2 Assessment of the Skills, Expertise and experience of Organizations
6.2.1 Assessment of Organizations by Age
a) Organizations aged below 5 years
b) Organizations Aged 5 to 10 years
c) Organizations Aged Above 10 years
6.2.2 Assessment by Financial Capability
a) Organizations with annual budgets below Tsh 50 million
b) Organizations with annual budgets in the range Tsh. 50 to 200 million.
c) Organizations with annual budgets in the range Tsh. 200 t0 1000 million.
d)Organizations with annual budgets above Tsh. 1000 million
6.2.3 Assessment by Clusters
a) Children and Youth rights
b) Women rights
c) Social, Economic and Cultural rights
d)Civil, Political and Governance rights
e)Environmental rights
6.3 Assessment on Adherence to Governance Issues.
6.4 Assessment of the Financial Capability of Member Organizations
6.4.1 Financial Capability and location of organizations
6.4.2 Funding Sources
6.4.3 New Funding Sources
6.4.4 Training as part of Capacity building
SAHRiNGONMEMBERS’ CAPACITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT STUDY.
1.INTRODUCTION
The Southern African Human Rights Non- Government Organization Network Tanzania Chapter is a human rights umbrella organization established in the year 2004 in the conformity to the wishes of human rights organization in Southern African DevelopmentCommunityto work together in the promotion and protection of human rights in the region.The Country chapter organizations were to be established for the purpose of facilitating networking and collective actions; and building capacity of human rights organizations that subscribe to the idealsof the organization and become members of the organization.Of the founder country Chapters of SAHRiNGON, the Tanzania Chapter is the only Country chapter that has been established and effectively operating.
SAHRiNGON Tanzania Chapter commissioned a member’s needs assessment in parallelwith the evaluation of its ended Strategic Plan for the period 2008/09 to 2010/11,and both were done by Kasuto Company Limited, an economic and business consulting firm based in Dar es Salaam.
The members’ capacity needs assessment study is in line with the objectives for which the Chapter was established as outlined in article 3(a),(b), (f) and (m) of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of SAHRiINGON Tanzania Chapter which state as follows:
i)To facilitate networking and collective actions among its member organizations in their endeavours of creating and advocating for a culture of observing, supporting, respecting, defending, protecting and promoting human rights in Tanzania and in other countries of the Southern Africa.
ii)To network and collaborate with its members, other Chapters, governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations and other national and international partners having objectives similar or complementary to those of this Company.
iii)To build capacity of human rights organizations
iv)To provide expertise assistance and other support to members through training, identification and analysis of legal and human rights problems, the design and evaluation of human rights programmes.
The members needs assessment on which this report is based is expected to assist SAHRiNGON Tanzania Chapter to get the necessary information and data on the capacity needs of members that it can objectively use in determining how best members will be used in implementing the forthcoming strategic plan that will be formulated as well as being a valuable input in developing a comprehensive member’s capacity building plan and seek for funding to implement it.
By the end of 2011 SAHRiNGON had 96 members. These members are to be found in almost all regions of Tanzania, except Rukwa, Ruvuma, Kagera, Mtwara and Tabora regions. Dar es Salaam hosts 52 per cent of all andthere is only one member from Zanzibar.
This report is presented in seven parts including this parts which are:
Introduction
This part provides a very brief back group of SAHRiNGON taking into consideration that detailed treatment has been done on the first part of the assignment relating to the evaluation of the strategic plan and the justification of the capacity and needs assessment stud of its member organizations
Executive Summary
The executive summary summarizes the key findings and highlights the main recommendations made.
Terms of Reference
This part provided the terms of reference for ease of reference that guided the conducting of the study.
Methodology and Approach
This part outlines the methodology and approach that was used in conducting the study, the limitations and constraints faced that had an impact to the findings.
Findings
This part provides more information on theapproach used as well providing details of the findings of the study.
Conclusions
This is the last part of this report and makes some pertinent observations on the study being reported and offers suggestions for future studies of this kind.
2EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report presents the findings of the SAHRiNGON member’s needs assessment study which was conducted in the month of January and February 2012. The study focused in identifying the broad needs of the member organizations to enable SAHRiNGON effectively fulfill its obligations to its members as specified in the memorandum and articles of association as well as provide some inputs to the development of its strategic plan.
KEY FINDINGS
Member organizations of SAHRiNGON are in different phases of growth and differ substantially in terms of resources at their dispose. However all of them greatly depend on funding from external funding agencies or local organizations which are themselves funded by external agencies. However, funding from the Government and private organizations registered in Tanzania to support human rights activities is not significant.
All organizations are registered and incorporated in Tanzania and fulfill the basic requirements of basic governance requirements as required in the legislation by which they have been registered. An in depth study on how well they adhere to good governance practices was not carried out. Due to the requirements of some funding agencies on good governance it is likely that many member organizations have adopted good governance practices including having clearly defined roles and accountabilities of the various governance organs. However small and medium organizations with limited resources need to be assisted in adopting good governance practices.
More thana half of the responding member organizations have reported to have in place internal management processes and control systems to support their day to day operations. The consultant did not review the sufficiency of the internal management instruments but the mere fact that some organizations do have them in place is a step in the right direction and therefore others need to be encouraged and supported in development of such management systems.
This study has identified a number of training needs that will assist member organizations develop their capabilities. SAHRiNGON as the umbrella organization can economically arrange for such training.
Member organizations have also voiced their expectations from SAHRiNGON. These have been detailed on the relevant sections in this report. This will assist SAHRiNGON reposition itself to fulfill the objectives for which it was established.
All in all the member organizations still find their umbrella organization to be relevant and useful which a very positive sign to SAHRiNGON.
MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS
It is recommended that:
- SAHRiNGON should consider developing and facilitating capacity building programs relating to human rights awareness and developing proposals that will be positively be considered by donors/partners.
- SAHRiNGON work closely with organizations with the relevant expertise and experience in implementing its activities and put more effort in developing members with limited resources mainly through provision of training including on human rights in general, project right ups and fund raising techniques.
- SAHRINGON with the support of successful human rights organization should intensively consult with organizations that seem not to be growing for the purpose of identifying their challenges to their growth and develop capacity programs for them.
- SAHRiNGON should be soliciting funds that will enable large human rights organizations share their experiences and build capacity of small and medium human rights organization through attachments and facilitation of training.
- SAHRINGON consider supporting small and medium organizations in the development capacity for good governance and in preparing samples of Human resources policies and regulations, financial policies and regulations;and procurement policies and procedures appropriate for human right organizations that depend on external funding to implement their activities.
- SAHRiNGON consider approaching some private organizations with concrete proposals in order to determine their readiness to support the promotion of specific human rights areas e.g. sponsoring of human rights promotion radio programs, support needy organizations print their brochures and support organizations involved in social and economic activities as part of the organizations social responsibility.
- SAHRiNGON include the prioritized training programs in its forthcoming Strategic Plan.
- the Secretariat increase member organization involvement in implementing its programs/projects and retain its coordinating role.
- SAHRiNGON consider preparing an electronic document to be posted on its website providing information and contact information of its members and those with websites create links to its website.
- being aware of the wide range on the member’s requirement, SAHRiNGON start considering phased implementation of communication and information sharing expectations of its members coordinated by the relevant department of the secretariat.
3TERMS OF REFERENCE
The terms of reference for the assessment of capabilities and needs of SAHRiNGON member organizations were combined with those relating to the evaluation of the 2008 -2011 Strategic Plan. The following constitute the specific terms of reference for assessing the capabilities and needs on member organizations:
3.1.1Assess the skills, expertise and experience of the organization
3.1.2 Assess of governance issues if are adhered to and.
3.1.3Assess financial capacity of the members’ organization
4METHODOLODY AND APPROACH
In the process of determining the capacities and needs of SAHRiNGON member organizations a number of methodologies were used.
Initially it was planned to have a standard treatment of all member organizations in the collection of primary information and data irrespective of their location by circulating a questionnaire by e-mail to be completed by all members. The questionnaire was sent to seventy-nine member organizations that SAHRiNGON had their email addresses. This was considered most appropriate due to the limited time and the financial resources available to conduct the study. (Annex1.)
However due in adequate response from the member organizations limited face to face semi structured interviews were conducted by the Consultant with some member organization in Dar es Salaam.TheSecretariat provided valuable support in conducting structured telephone interviews based on the e-mailed questionnaire.Using this methods 28 organizations (35.4 % of organizations invited to participate) provided information relating to the questionnaire.
Secondary information and data was collected through review of literature and documents available at theSAHRiNGON offices, through desk top research relating to the subject as well as discussions with members of the sSecretariat and officials of organizations.
The factors on the basis which the capacities and needs of member organizations were assessed were as follows:Capabilities and needs may vary due to the different ages of the organizations, their financial capability, the type of human rights that the organizations focus on and the number employees that are employed on long term to deliver services.
4.1 Age of the organizations
Looking on the capacities and needs of the organizations based on age was expected to review the capacities and needs based on the formative, growing and stabilization periods. For the purpose of this study,organizations were grouped into three categories as indicated below:
- 0 to 5 years considered to be the formative phase
- 5 to 10 years as the growing phase
- 10 years and above as the stabilization phase
Other studies that have categorized NGOs by age view them as going through three phases, namely;
- The mushrooming phase
- The consolidation phase
- The influential phase
The two ways of categorization are similar but the later categorization is based more on the level of deliverables in the sense that some organizations move faster from one phase to the other while the former assumes that the maturity of organizations is the age.
4.2 The average annual budgets in the last three years.
This aspect was expected to influence the confidenceof the organizations to funding of their activities as well as differentiate the kind of needs of the organizations.The funding level was also expected to influence the way organizations plan and implement their activities; as well as their staffing levels.
The organizations were divided by taking into account their average budgets for the past three years (2009 – 2011) and using SAHRiNGON’s budget as a benchmark. They were divided into four groups: the first two with average annual budget less than that of SAHRiNGON, one in the same range as SAHRiNGON and the last with average annual budgets more than SAHRiNGON.
In this regard, the organizations were grouped as follows:
a)Average annual budgets of less than Tsh 50 million
b)Average budget in the range Tsh. 50million to Tsh 200 million
c)Average annual budgets in the range Tsh. 200 million to Tsh. 1,000 million
d)Average annual budget above Tsh. 1,000 million
4.3 The number of employees of the organizations
The capacity of an organization may also be influenced by the competences and number of long term employees delivering the services at any one time. In assessing the capabilities and needs of organizationson the basis of employees and competences the organizations were grouped as follows:
- With employees between 0 to 5 employees
- With 5 to 10 employees and
- With over 10 employees
4.4The type of human rights in which the organizations are mainly involved.
The last approach in assessing the capacities of member organizations was through the type of human rights that the organizations mainly focus on. The grouping of organizations was done in accordance to how SAHRiNGON clusters its members which is as follows:[1]
a)Children and Youth rights
b)Women rights
c)Economic and Social and Cultural rights
d)Civil, Political and Governance rights
e)Environment rights
5LIMITATION TO THE METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH
The response to the circulated questionnaire was relatively low taking into consideration that only 28 organizations responded (Annex 2). Face to face interviews were done for Dar es Salaam based organizations only.
A few of the responding organizations did not fully complete the questionnaire, and it was not possible to make follow ups to verify information and fill in missing information.
Financial and time limits imposed constraints on the extent and depth of the study; nevertheless, as can be seen from the foregoing, sufficient information was collected and enabled the Consultant to identify the needs of member organizations.
6.FINDINGS
6.1Assessment of the Skills, Expertise and experience of Organizations
Assessment of skills and knowledge and experience in an organization is normally based on finding out the number of employees with relevant professional qualifications to undertake the core activities of the organization or employees that with time have developed the skills and knowledge to deliver specific assignments in the organizations. Normallyprofessionals are those employed by the organization to work on the specific activities but expertise will include those who volunteer to support the organization. The experience can be at individual or organizational level but in this case we mean organizational experience.
6.1.1 Assessment of Organizations by Age
a) Organizations aged below 5 years
The majority of member organizations that have been established for less than 5 years do not employ many staff and their expertise it limited. 80% of the members surveyed under this category have reported to have average annual budget of less than Tsh. 50 million for their operations and administrative purposes. This substantially limits their ability to recruit human rights and other professionals except for three organizations that have been able to recruit three or more professional employees with an annual budget of less than 50 million. It is uncertain how these organizations have been able to keep long term employees with such limited funding.
Further to the above due to financial constraints they are involved in small scale activities on their areas of specializations.Generally there is a good correlation between the age of the organizations, the level of expertise and experience available in the organizations and funding available.This group has limited capacity in developing proposals and undertaking large scale activities.
It is recommended that SAHRiNGON should consider developing and facilitating capacity building programs relating to human rights awareness and developing proposals that will be positively be considered by donors/partners.
It is further recommended that SAHRiNGON create and periodically review an inventory of partner organizations, their human rights area they support and contact addresses for distribution to its members particularly those under this group.
b) Organizations Aged 5 to 10 years
Organizations in this age group appear to have more experience and generally have expertise to carry out their activities. 54.5 % of these organizations have average annual budgets exceeding Tsh 50 million and recruit long term professional employees in the fields of law, accountancy,project management, advocacy and human resources.